


What Happens Next?

by asiacore



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Drabble, M/M, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:41:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asiacore/pseuds/asiacore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam left a week later along with all of Harry’s hopes and dreams and a pet turtle Harry bought and named, Achilles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Happens Next?

**Author's Note:**

> this was a drabble i wrote last year for a 30 day writing challenge i was doing (and never finished!!!) so i hope you enjoy it!!!!!

Harry sat in his room alone staring out the window wondering when he’d come back.

Well he wasn't _completely_ alone. He had this adorable little English Toy Spaniel named King sprawled in his lap, sleeping soundly and offering nothing but the horrible reminder that Liam is _actually_ gone and never coming back.

Liam had moved against both his and Harry's will when his parents decided mid-summer that it’d be better if they moved closer to the Uni Liam was going to attend in the fall since paying for room and board wasn't an option.

Harry’s heart shattered into a million pieces when Liam told him, face drooped, somber, almost comically like he'd just stepped out of a cartoon.

Liam was his rock. He was his best friend, his reason for waking up every morning, why he went to school and strived to earn decent enough grades to pass. But not good enough. Never enough. Because in the end Liam had gone off to Uni without him, damn Harry for being a full year beneath him, while Harry was sat at home in ultimate solitude wondering _why why why_ did Liam have to leave him.

Leave him with nothing but this reminder of what they used to be.

Or what they could have been.

King stirred in his lap and Harry glanced down to see the puppy blinking up at him. He reminded Harry a lot of Liam. Liam was essentially a puppy in Harry’s eyes anyway if he squinted hard enough. He was loyal and merry and affectionate and he had these big brown eyes that he’d bat at Harry with his bottom lip stuck out to get him to settle down and study or even once when they were young to eat his vegetables.

Harry would never tell him, but he didn't really have to do all of that. Liam always had a way of _having_ his way with Harry anyway.

King pawed at Harry’s stomach until he complied and rubbed his hand across the back of the ball of fur in his lap. He thought back to how he got the name King from Liam. How Liam bought the puppy right before he left and told him it was completely on a whim. He showed up at Harry’s house one day and Harry opened the door to a face full of puppy and Liam's bright smile, “Here, he’s for you.”

“What? Li, what is this?”

“It’s a puppy!”

“I know that, but  _why_  are you giving me a puppy?”

“I think the real question is why haven’t I ever given you a puppy before now. If you want, you can just think of him as _our_ puppy.”

And that was it. Harry was sold. He had a dog.

"He looks more like you than he does me," Harry noted and was taken with the pup immediately.

Liam shrugged bashfully , "Yeah, well,"

“What’s his name?” Harry asked.

“King. His name is King.”

Harry tried suppress his smile and nodded. He accepted the puppy in his arms before mentally deciding that he’d have to get Liam a puppy too. It's only fair, right? Except.. He didn’t have time to get him a puppy though because soon after Liam had announced he was leaving.

“They’re making me move, Hazza.”

“What? No you can stay here, with me.”

“I can’t, I have to go.”

“But, what about me?”

“I wish you could come with me…”

Harry tried to, he really did. He told his mum he’d get a job and he’d go to college and get _serious_ about his life if she'd just let him _go_.

But she wasn't about to let her only son go off on his own at sixteen and Liam left a week later along with all of Harry’s hopes and dreams and a pet turtle Harry bought and named, Achilles.

“Why Achilles?” Liam asked him face scrunched up with confusion, sadness, and other adjectives Harry was sure he was also projecting while they sat on his bed the night before Liam left.

“Because," Harry sighed, "you’re my Achilles’ heel.”

And  _shit_  finally saying that out loud cut deep.

Liam lurched forward and hugged him tight. His face buried in Harry’s curls as he cried and Harry tried to have some type of control over himself by only allowing himself to cry once Liam was asleep. They fell back still in that same position from before, arms wrapped tight around one another searching for that comfort, that little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe things would somehow work themselves out.

He left the next day.

They still talk whenever Liam gets the chance. They’ll Skype or just listen to each other breathe on the phone all night until they fall asleep and Harry prays that one day he’ll make it out there to see Liam. To be there with the real thing.

Until then, he’ll just sit here with King and wait.


End file.
